dbr wrote:Well, my point is that the $8m dollar figure isn't the end of the world. Almost all of those $7m+ guys remained desirable players - especially the ones that signed relatively young like Kessel will.. Nash, Gaborik, Heatley, Spezza, all guys who remained highly desirable assets (with completely acceptable contracts)..... as long as they played at close to the level they had when they signed, Dany Heatley I am looking in your direction...

What have these guys accomplished (for their teams) with their big salaries?

Well Heatley and Spezza got to a Cup Final.. Nash and Gaborik, sweet fuck all obviously. But a good first liner doesn't put the team on his back and carry them to success on his own in this league, that's not even the pay grade we're talking about here.

These guys aren't Crosby or Malkin, they are the next tier down and even they are all going to be in the $8m's (give or take a few guys who give discounts) when they've all expired and re-signed under this CBA.

Like I said, I'd rather not be in the position of having to pay my top forward(s) in that range than be doing it, but I'd also rather be paying my top forward(s) in that range rather than stuck with a team with zero players of that calibre.

The Canucks have been extremely fortunate to have their first line built around two guys who are not particularly greedy, we could easily be looking at two players of a similar calibre making $7m each and looking for raises into that territory next year.

Glenn Healy leapt at the chance to chastise John Tortorella in the first intermission for laying into Keith Acton verbally after Acton’s son fought Ryan Kesler. Tortorella would later explain he jumped down Acton’s throat because the Oilers assistant was jawing at one of his players.

That didn’t stop Healy from flogging Tortorella between periods, saying the coach needs to “suck it up and shut up.”I couldn’t let that one go, and asked Torts about it in the presser after the game. He didn’t disappoint. He volleyed back: “I don’t care what CBC says, or what anyone says quite honestly. They don’t know what happened. I don’t really give a shit what they say.

So daddy Acton was upset his little boy fought, and fought that goon Kesler to boot! He should be happy it was Kesler and should have been thanking him.

Healy really did come off with sour grapes. I don't know what his problem is with all things Canuck but it is getting tiresome. Good on Friedman for calling him on his BS. Best part was when he told Healy to stop acting like a 14 year old girl!

Hockey Widow wrote:...Healy really did come off with sour grapes. I don't know what his problem is with all things Canuck but it is getting tiresome. Good on Friedman for calling him on his BS. Best part was when he told Healy to stop acting like a 14 year old girl! ....

Some of the HNIC 'analysts' seem to think Canuck bashing is an easy way to curry favour with the fans of rival Canadian clubs (especially, at the centre of the universe). If it weren't for the backlash from the Canuck organization against MacLean, he might still be at it.

Hockey Widow wrote:...Healy really did come off with sour grapes. I don't know what his problem is with all things Canuck but it is getting tiresome. Good on Friedman for calling him on his BS. Best part was when he told Healy to stop acting like a 14 year old girl! ....

Some of the HNIC 'analysts' seem to think Canuck bashing is an easy way to curry favour with the fans of rival Canadian clubs (especially, at the centre of the universe). If it weren't for the backlash from the Canuck organization against MacLean, he might still be at it.

Look at that grimace! Sort of like him staring down the coach right before he gets yanked for the 843rd time in his "career"

“I like a lot of the stuff that he [Torts] says, but the tone that he says it in makes it sound like everyone else is… stupid! ... and that just an… in a business in Montreal… Canada… sss… we’re all media, we love our hockey game… we’re all… we all give opinions. We might be right, we might be wrong, but all try and… go in the same direction…. we don’t… it’s just… it’s tone…. (searches for the right words)...”

Healy comes to his rescue:

“You’re paid for an opinion.”

PJ Stock:

“Yeah”

Healy:

“You’re paid for an opinion…”

(turns and looks directly at Friedman, causing Weekes to h'yuk like a hillbilly for some reason)

“… not to be candy striper at the hospital.”

(MacLean and Weekes chuckle for a second and then stop with confused looks on their faces)

Friedman:

“I don’t get what that means.” (for starters, candy stripers don't get paid...)

Elliotte, I believe it means you're like a volunteer assistant nurse at the psyche ward and it's not funny.

(get away from CBC before you catch their disease)

PJ, you are stupid and you should thank people like Torts and yours truly for pointing it out.

Glen, as bizarre as it sounds, you come off as stupider than PJ (at least PJ doesn't try to sound smart).

Kevin, I'm starting to believe you really did follow a mugger to a better mugging spot.

Ron, I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and conclude that at times you merely act stupid.

This is an example of Torts coming to Vancouver with a reputation. A reputation earned on the back of several confrontations with one media dork in NY. And as media are want to do they would play the same clips over and over and over to the point that it appeared that that was the totality of Tort's ability to deal with the press.

That same media is now wanting to re-creat that controversy and so they jump at any little thing and blow it up. They created the Torts image and they want to continue to flog that horse. Not giving Torts a pass here as he dug the hole for himself but enough is enough. He has owned his past and has stated he knows he needs to walk that line and not engage the media they way he did in NY. But it is over blown hype. Never saw this when he was in Tampa did we?

HNIC was trying to create controversy where none existed. I think Healy still has a connection to NY and he was spouting off for personal reasons as he hates Torts so he will grab at anything to slag the guy.

And ya, McLean is coming off as a Canuck apologist. Love that part, seeing him go out of his way to say something positive about Vancouver.

Hockey Widow wrote:And ya, McLean is coming off as a Canuck apologist. Love that part, seeing him go out of his way to say something positive about Vancouver.

I agree with everything you said except for this particular comment.

There is more than meets the eye with McLean IMO, and he still "gets off" in seeing bad things happen to Vancouver.

He was the one that asked Glen Healy for his thoughts after the Tortorella clip was showed. McLean didnt seem to really mind what Healy said either.

Agreed.

Politician MacLean is trying to play the role of 'Canuck apologist' but his Canuck-hatred shines on through.

My thoughts exactly.

I first noticed this during the 2011 finals during the Game 6 intermission. McLean, with an arrogant smirk, looked at Messier and said, "Vancouver is trying to make Ryan Kesler their Mark Messier" (or something to that effect......the way he said it though, it was obvious that he was speaking in a condescending manner).

The other time was when the Canucks were playing Ottawa in 2012 and McLean buried Alex Burrows during Coach's Corner (Cherry called him out on it as well!). A week later, McLean "apologized" on the broadcast, but in an indirect way, tried to imply that him and Cherry were just joking around and that Vancouver fans were uptight and serious.

I'll give McLean some credit though......the guy is as shrewd as they come. He dislikes Vancouver, but he attacks the city quite well.

The Brown Knight wrote:I'll give McLean some credit though......the guy is as shrewd as they come. He dislikes Vancouver, but he attacks the city quite well.

Agreed, give the devil his due.

Although he's not so shrewd whenst feasting upon the Leafcock.

Yep.

Speaking of which, I want to go on record as saying that I don't think Don Cherry is pro-Canada. In my opinion, he's simply anti-foreigner and this gives him the guise of being Pro-Canadian ( maybe it's not as extreme as I'm making it out to be, but I do think Cherry's dislike of foreigners outweighs his love of what he perceives as Canadians).

The litmus test for me, is how Cherry views French Canadians.

Cherry loves Toronto, strongly likes Boston, and pretty much dislikes anything and everything else that gets in the way of the Leafs and Bruins.